16 children repatriated from foreign jails: Minister

The social services department has repatriated 16 children born to women held in foreign jails, it said on Sunday.

   

Social development minister Bathabile Dlamini recently repatriated two children whose mothers were serving sentences in Rio and Sao Paolo, Brazil.

   

"The babies, aged 10 months and one year respectively, are currently in temporary care while awaiting foster care placement," she told reporters in Pretoria.

   

Dlamini said women imprisoned at advanced stages of pregnancy, gave birth to their children while in prison. 

   

Three women serving sentences were pregnant. 

   

They were among 337 South African women, aged 29 to 62, imprisoned in foreign countries for illicit drug trafficking.

   

"A large number of these women, 92, are incarcerated in some of the nine female prisons in Brazil..., 71 South African females are serving their sentences in Sao Paolo alone," she said.

   

Dlamini said some drug cartels used routes that include countries which were part of the Southern African Development Community and she appealed for stricter drug regulations in the region.

   

Hawks organised crime investigator Brigadier Ebrahim Kadwa  said drug mules at the country's border posts were a growing problem.

   

"Since the beginning of January 2012, there have 281 arrests at OR Tambo [International Airport] of couriers, South African and other nationalities."

   

-Sapa